Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoff received NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the official Katshuis residence this afternoon. The two took a brief tour of the area around the World Forum in The Hague, where the NATO summit will be held tomorrow and the day after, the Dutch National News Agency (ANP) reported, BTA reports.
The area around the forum is now largely closed due to tight security measures. Rutte expressed gratitude to Schoff for organizing the event and stressed the importance of the forum for security in the Euro-Atlantic area.
This is the first time that the Netherlands has hosted a NATO summit. More than 40 heads of state and government are expected to attend, as well as around 9,000 guests, including approximately 2,000 journalists from around the world.
For Rutte, the meeting will begin this afternoon with a press conference that will kick off the two-day discussions.
One of the main topics of the forum will be the proposal that NATO member states allocate at least 5% of their gross domestic product to defense. Despite initial resistance from Spain, Mark Rutte managed to work out a compromise wording in the closing statement, with which the Spanish government agrees.